A Batch Of Kudos And Long-lost Cookies

COMMANDER COCONUT

December 20, 1996

My, it certainly is awards season, is it?

End-of-year kudos all around.

Nothing for me though.

Or for you either probably.

We are the little people - although at least one of us little people actually won an Oscar. That would be Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously, a film I fear might not hold up too well for me because that dreadful Australian superstar is in it.

Anyhow, the Kennedy Center Honors were bestowed earlier this month. The ceremonies in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, were taped and will air at 9 p.m. Thursday on CBS with Walter Cronkite hosting.

This show is usually one of the best things on the TV each year - even if it does sometimes get goopy and overly theatrical.

The honors honor American artists for their lifetime achievements - although in looking over the list of winners, it certainly seems a lot of foreign-born people have won out over born-here folks.

I suppose I am still too young to be considered (even though I was born in this country), but I know one terrific singer who should be. In fact, she should have won a KC honor by now.

The fabulous Rosemary Clooney.

Let's all write the Kennedy Center next year and put in a good word for this extraordinary American pop singer. It turns out anyone is free to nominate folks for this award; it is a free country, after all. You just need to spell out why you think Rosemary Clooney or anyone else you choose should win and send it to James Johnson, chairman, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. 20566.

The Honors were first accorded in 1978. The winners that year were soprano Marian Anderson, dancer-actor Fred Astaire, composer Richard Rodgers, choreographer George Balanchine and pianist Arthur Rubinstein.

And speaking of Rosemary Clooney, which we always like to do, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) conferred its big-shot Pied Piper award on her, calling her ''an American musical treasure and one of the best friends a song ever had.''

I'll say.

Speaking of end-of-year awards, the New York Film Critics Circle named Fargo best picture of 1996, and the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures named Fargo's Joel Coen best director.

That is too money.

Here, I always think these groups will forget films that came out early in the year.

Fargo, starring the always terrific Frances McDormand, may even get an Oscar nomination, but it is too hip and too dark to win, I'm sure, the average age of Oscar voters appearing to be 75 and all. Speaking of ancient, I wonder if the Reagans are Academy members. Well, there you have it, don't you?

Anyhow, next week, on the final Friday of the year, your own Commander will tell you about 1996 favorites - like Fargo is our second favorite movie, and Lourdes is our favorite name for a kid born to a celebrity.

Meanwhile . . .

What I Want for Christmas!

By Commander Coconut

1. More Christianlike behavior from those who smugly label themselves Christians.

2. The second coming - or at least a benign alien invasion.

3. (tie) Peace on Earth.

3. (tie) No more Oscars for Mel Gibson.

It is the holiday season, and I was determined to come up with different cookies this year - although I did make the old peanut-butter faves that you plop a Hershey's kiss on top of.

So here I was, looking through old recipes I sort of inherited from my mom when she died in 1965 - at a very-too-young age. (And God has some explaining to do about that if I ever get to meet him face-to-face; I talk to him but have never actually seen him.)

Anyhow, I came upon one recipe that must have been stuck to another one or something because I had never noticed it before. (On the other hand, it could have been something spooky, a hand from beyond putting that recipe in the folder.)